


Shadow Races

by NerdsbianHokie



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: I was challenged, fucking angst y'all, multiple character deaths, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 07:34:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16035878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdsbianHokie/pseuds/NerdsbianHokie
Summary: Listening means knowing, means risking, means hearing the snap she was too slow to stop, hearing the wisp of breath before silence.





	Shadow Races

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of, in my head, a super angsty alternate version of the events in [One]. I wasn't going to actually write it, but, then, things happened.

The sun beats down on Kara’s shoulders, filling her with power, but she has never felt so drab. She scans the desert below, careful to not miss anything, careful to not let her refusal to listen impact her search.

She should be listening, be using every ability she has, but fear curdles in her stomach, sits heavy on her shoulders.

Listening means knowing, means risking, means hearing the snap she was too slow to stop, hearing the wisp of breath before silence.

She doesn’t need another death finding a home in her ears.

She doesn’t need _this_ death finding a home in her ears.

No.

Alex isn’t dead.

Kara is going to find her.

Or J’onn is going to find her.

And they are going to bring her home safe and alive.

And they are going to help her find healthy ways to grieve Lucy and Maggie.

Kara shakes her head, forces her focus back to the ground, to the sand.

To sunlight glinting off of metal.

“J’onn, I think I found something.”

She lands harder than she usually would, cracks radiating into the earth when she touches down and for the first few steps after.

Heat lifts off of the crumpled metal in waves, the stench of burnt oil hangs heavy in the air. The glass of broken bottles crunch beneath her steps.

_“What do you have?”_ J’onn’s voice cuts over their coms

“It’s her bike.” She flips it over with her foot. “She’s not here.”

Kara squints, looking around. Her heart skips a beat at a figure huddled on the other side of a rock formation.

“I think I got her.”

She crosses the space in moments, ignoring the trail of blood on the sand, ignoring the rising fear in her gut.

She rounds the rocks.

Her voice catches in her throat. She falls to her knees next to Alex, words leaving her.

Her fingers tremble across Alex’s face, hovering over the scraps and cuts. She circles her fingers down, presses them against Alex’s neck.

A sob rips up her throat.

A soft flutter against her fingers.

A rapid flutter and dark brown.

Alex stares up at her. Broken syllables tumble over themselves, falling from her lips.

Kara hushes her. “You’re okay. I’ll get you to the DEO.”

It’s pitiful, how painful Alex’s headshake looks. “Se...Se...Sor...e...sor.”

Kara shakes her head. “No, Alex no.”

There’s no response. Alex’s eyes flutter shut again.

“No. No. No. Nonononono. Alex!”

The beating of her own heart drowns out the snap of Lucy’s neck when she hit the curb, drowns out Maggie’s last breath after the life support was shut down.

She scoops Alex into her arms and the beating of her own heart is shadowed by the occasional beat of Alex’s.

“I have her,” she says, ignoring that J’onn heard her words to Alex. “I’m taking her in.”

She ignores the angle Alex’s leg hands out. She ignores the dried blood scraping off and opening wounds.

She races the shadowy beats as they slow and slow and slow and

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm in this chat that's, like, meant for super angsty hcs and aus and such, and then I got yelled at for alluding to possible character deaths, so I rose to the challenge, and well, killed the entire ship?
> 
> Moral of this story is don't challenge me to angst.


End file.
